


Prompt: Touch starved- Shiro (Voltron)

by AnaliseGrey



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Paladin cuddle pile, Shiro (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Touch-Starved, but I'm ok with that, or ten, this ended up a lot softer than I intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 23:03:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14861984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaliseGrey/pseuds/AnaliseGrey
Summary: For my Bad Things Happen Bingo cardleahowlett on tumblr asked: "Touch starved for Shiro please? :)”





	Prompt: Touch starved- Shiro (Voltron)

**Author's Note:**

> I would consider this a direct follow-up to my story [So He Won't Break](http://archiveofourown.org/works/14204091/chapters/32742570). You don't need to have read that to read this, but things you should know:
> 
> Shiro had been in Haggar’s clutches (again) for months, and she did a lot of messed up shit to him, and when he got back his prosthetic had been damaged beyond repair. He a has a new one now, designed by Hunk, Pidge, Coran, with help from the Olkari.

Things were definitely getting better.

Shiro still couldn’t get over his new arm, would find himself just looking at it every now and again, marveling in the lighter design, twisting it this way and that and enjoying the smoothness with which it functioned. It lit up blue now, the soft blue Shiro had started to associate with Altean technology. It was a nice change from the eye-searing purple it used to glow.

The others weren’t as careful around him, laughing and joking again, including him in occasional hijinx. There was still some space, but he put that up to the natural space that happened between a perceived leader and their subordinates. He knew they didn’t mean anything by it, and he took no personal offense. He’d felt the same way with his commanders at the Garrison; he got along really well with Sam, but he was  _ friends  _ with Matt.

So he understood.

That didn’t mean he didn’t long for the sort of closeness the other paladins had with each other. They’d have a movie night, or game night, and they’d all pile together on the couch, even Keith of all people, usually sandwiched between Hunk and Pidge, and Shiro would fold himself into the corner, perfectly comfortable, but aching in some indefinable way inside. He knew it wasn’t physical. He was completely healed from the last of the damage Haggar had caused, and all his medical scans had come back clean. He would look at them all and  _ want _ , so hard it hurt, deep in his chest, but he didn’t know what he wanted. So like most of the hurts he dealt with regularly, Shiro stuffed it down. It wasn’t a physical issue, and it didn’t keep him from doing his job, so it wasn’t as important. If he occasionally felt like crying for no reason, or like he was coming out of his skin, well, that was his problem, and what was one more, really, especially after all he’d been through?

Things came to a bit of a head a few weeks later when again, movie night came, this time with a subtitled Altean comedy. It lost something in translation, but the paladins were still having fun heckling it even if the sense of humor didn’t make a lot of sense. Some of them had gotten up to get snacks part way through, or do bathroom breaks, and somehow with all the movement, Shiro had gotten shuffled in towards the middle. Hunk was pressed up against his right side, with Lance on the other side of Hunk, and Pidge was tucked under his left arm with Keith on the floor, leaning back against Shiro’s legs.

He’d been tense at first, not used to being in the center of the pile, and almost afraid to move, until Pidge had jabbed at his arm and told him to loosen up because he was making a bad pillow. He’d calmed slightly since then, but as the movie wore on and the paladins around him started to drop off to sleep on and around him, the feeling of fondness that swept through him was quickly followed by something else he couldn’t quite name. He could feel it in his chest, the same place he always felt the ache, but it felt like it was going to burble up and out of him, and to his surprise he realized he was close to tears and didn’t know why. Nothing was wrong, everything was quiet. The warm solid weight of Pidge and Hunk on either side of him and Keith against his legs felt good, and the sounds of quiet breathing from around him was soothing, too. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down, and between one breath and the next, he fell asleep.

And if the others noticed he was in a better mood the next day, more relaxed and cheerful? Well, then surely it had nothing to do with their conspiring to make him the center of the couch again on the next movie night. 

And the one after that, and the one after that. 

**Author's Note:**

> Want to claim a prompt square? Want to say hi, flail at me, or send me other interesting messages/story prompts? Find me on tumblr at [Analisegrey](http://analisegrey.tumblr.com/)


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